The former business operator of a Pembrokeshire water bottling plant has been fined £5,500 for food hygiene offences.

Rosalind Susan Burke, of Pembrokeshire Spring, Pontygafel, Glandwr, which produces Ffynnon Dêg spring water, pleaded guilty to 12 offences under the Food Hygiene (Wales) Regulations 2006 at Haverfordwest Magistrates Court on Monday.

The prosecution was brought by the public protection department of Pembrokeshire County Council, as a result of her failure to comply with two hygiene improvement notices issued by the council.

The notices were served after a routine food hygiene inspection on November 9, 2010, where officers discovered evidence of rodent droppings, birds and bird faeces in the premises.

Officers found an inadequate level of cleaning and disinfection and that there was no food safety management system in place to ensure that risks to food safety were adequately controlled.

Further offences were identified on visits to the premises in April, July and October 2011, relating to inadequate procedures in place to control pests and failure to keep the food premises clean and maintained in good repair and condition.

Rosalind Susan Burke was fined £2,500 for failing to comply with two hygiene improvement notices, including a failure to put in place and implement a Food Safety Management System based on Hazard Analysis Critical Control Point principles (HACCP) and a failure to complete effective pest proofing measures at the premises.

She was also fined a further £3,000 for the failure to keep the food premises clean and maintained in good repair and condition; failing to ensure the layout, design and construction permitted good food hygiene practices, in particular pest control; failure to have adequate procedures in place to control pests and failure to have HACCP procedures in place.